Experiencing Philosophy - Second Edition

Experiencing Philosophy begins with the assumption that philosophy is not merely something you know but also something you experience and participate in. The book presents philosophical theories and ideas with reference to their practical relevance to the lives of student readers. To this end, a number of engaging features and inserts are provided: • Original Sources: Numerous primary readings are included, introducing students directly to the philosophical work of diverse thinkers ranging from Plato to Martin Luther King Jr. Each reading is thoughtfully excerpted and followed by reflective questions. • Philosopher Profiles: Abstract ideas are connected to the lives of real historical figures through fascinating biographical profiles. • Take It Personally: To illustrate how philosophy can be useful and relevant, each chapter begins by placing the material in a personal context. • Know Thyself Diagnostics: This book takes seriously—as did Socrates—the Delphic Oracle’s dictum to “know thyself.” Students are given self-diagnostics to explore their own philosophical values, ideals, and beliefs. • Philosophers in Action: Philosophy is something you do, not just something you know. Prompts are provided throughout the text inviting students to conduct thought experiments, analyze concepts, and discuss and debate controversial points. • Thinking about Your Thinking: These metacognitive prompts require students to engage in higher-order thinking, not only about the presented readings and ideas but also with respect to their own values, assumptions, and beliefs. • Plus: Built-in study guides, diagrams, famous philosophical quotations, comics, feature boxes, and more!

Table of Contents:
Preface Features Acknowledgments CHAPTER 1: What Is Philosophy? Take It Personally Know Thyself: My Preconceptions about Philosophy 1.1 What Is a Philosopher? Philosophy and Philosophers: Caricatures, Myths, and Realities The Philosopher’s Profile ORIGINAL SOURCE: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Reply to Sor Filotea Wisdom: The Object of Love 1.2 The Practical Value of Philosophy Philosophy’s Relevance in an Age of Technology Therapeutic Applications of Philosophy 1.3 Fields of Philosophy Metaphysics Epistemology Logic Ethics Axiology Social/Political Philosophy Foundational and Disciplinary Philosophies Philosophies of Life 1.4 Approaches to Philosophy Western Philosophy Historical Approaches Non-Traditional and Non-Western Approaches Feminist Approaches ORIGINAL SOURCE: Lee Hester, “Truth and Native American Epistemology” Spiritually-Based Philosophical Traditions ORIGINAL SOURCE: Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, Al-Munqidh min al-Dalal (Deliverance from Error) Modern Western Philosophy ORIGINAL SOURCE: Bertrand Russell, “The Value of Philosophy” Progress Check Study Guide CHAPTER 2: Understanding Arguments, Claims, and Fallacies of Reasoning Take It Personally Know Thyself: How Rational Am I? 2.1 What Is an Argument? Arguments vs. Opinions and Other Non-Arguments Attitude Adjustments for Argument Benefits of Argument The Socratic Method ORIGINAL SOURCE: Plato, Euthyphro, featuring the Socratic Method 2.2 Deductive Arguments Modus Ponens Modus Tollens Hypothetical Syllogisms/Chain Arguments Disjunctive Syllogisms Categorical Syllogisms or Syllogisms of Class Membership Validity, Truth, and Soundness 2.3 Non-Deductive Arguments Argument from Past Experience Argument by Analogy Argument by Inductive Generalization 2.4 Evaluating Claims Factual Statements Value Judgments Conceptual Claims 2.5 Informal Logical Fallacies Ad Hominem Fallacy Straw Person Fallacy Circular Reasoning/Begging the Question Fallacy Two Wrongs Fallacy Slippery Slope Fallacy Appealing to Authority Fallacy Red Herring Fallacy Guilt by Association Fallacy Progress Check Study Guide CHAPTER 3: Philosophies of Life Take It Personally Know Thyself: The Philosophy of Life Preference Indicator 3.1 Stoicism: A Prescription for Peace of Mind Stoicism’s Cynical Origins The Stoic Universe How to Live in a Fated Universe Freedom and Value Purpose of Life Emotions in Life How to Progress Morally ORIGINAL SOURCE: Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius 3.2 Existentialism: Born Free, Let Me Be Me Methods Philosophers Associated with Existentialism Existentialism as a Revolt Essence versus Existence Individuality and Subjective Experience Existential Freedom ORIGINAL SOURCE: Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism 3.3 The Meaning of Life Meaningful Lives ORIGINAL SOURCE: Susan Wolf, “The Meanings of Lives” Viktor Frankl and the Will-to-Meaning 3.4 Hedonism: Pleasure Is the Measure Psychological versus Ethical Hedonism Aristippus of Cyrene Epicurus Momentary versus Enduring Pleasures Kinetic versus Static Pleasures Ataraxia: The Ultimate End of Life Natural Desires Impediments to Ataraxia Virtue in the Pleasant Life The Role of Friendship ORIGINAL SOURCE: Epicurus, “Letter to Menoeceus” 3.5 Buddhism as a Philosophy of Life The Four Noble Truths The Noble Eight-Fold Path ORIGINAL SOURCE: Buddha, Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (Setting in Motion the Wheel of Truth) Progress Check Study Guide CHAPTER 4: Epistemology, Metaphysics, and God Take It Personally Know Thyself: My Philosophical Presuppositions about Knowledge and Reality 4.1 Preliminary Questions and Definitions 4.2 Plato’s Metaphysical Epistemology Divided Line Theory Theory of Forms Simile of the Sun ORIGINAL SOURCE: Plato, Simile of the Sun Allegory of the Cave ORIGINAL SOURCE: Plato, Allegory of the Cave 4.3 René Descartes’s Rational Method of Doubt Historical Context The Quest for Certainty Method of Doubt ORIGINAL SOURCE: René Descartes, First Meditation Cogito Ergo Sum—I Think, Therefore I Am ORIGINAL SOURCE: René Descartes, Second Meditation, featuring the Cogito ORIGINAL SOURCE: René Descartes, Second Meditation, featuring The Wax Example 4.4 John Locke’s Empiricist Theory of Ideas Tabula Rasa Criticisms of Innate Ideas Primary and Secondary Qualities of Objects 4.5 David Hume’s Radical Skepticism On the Origin of Ideas Rejection of the Cogito Association of Ideas Critique of Causality “Hume’s Fork” and Types of Reasoning ORIGINAL SOURCE: David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding David Hume’s Origins and Limits of Knowledge: A Summary 4.6 Immanuel Kant’s Synthesis of Reason and Sensory Experience The Role of the Senses in Knowledge The Copernican Revolution in Epistemology A Priori Elements of Knowledge Kantian versus Platonic Forms The Categories of Cause and Substance Metaphysics and the Regulative Function of Transcendental Ideas ORIGINAL SOURCE: Immanuel Kant, Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics 4.7 Critiques of Traditional Western Approaches to Epistemology and Metaphysics Standpoint Epistemology ORIGINAL SOURCE: Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought Mind-Body Metaphysics ORIGINAL SOURCE: Yasuo Yuasa, Toward an Eastern Mind-Body Theory 4.8 Proofs for the Existence of God St. Anselm’s Ontological Proof St. Thomas Aquinas’s “Five Ways”: Proofs for the Existence of God ORIGINAL SOURCE: St. Thomas Aquinas, Whether God Exists Progress Check Study Guide CHAPTER 5: Ethics and Moral Decision Making Take It Personally Know Thyself: The Ethical Perspective Indicator 5.1 Plato’s Character Ethics Plato’s Teleology Vision of the Soul Moral Balance and Plato’s Functional Explanation of Morality ORIGINAL SOURCE: Plato, Virtue and Justice in the Individual and in the State Know Thyself: Platonic Character Type Index (PCTI) Plato’s Character Types 5.2 Aristotle’s Virtue Ethics Aristotle’s Teleology Happiness (Eudaimonia) and the Ends of Human Life Kinds of Lifestyles Virtue and the Virtuous Lifestyle ORIGINAL SOURCE: Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 5.3 Jeremy Bentham’s Utilitarian Ethics The Principle of Utility Is-Ought Fallacy The Hedonic Calculus The Theory of Sanctions ORIGINAL SOURCE: Jeremy Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation 5.4 Immanuel Kant’s Deontological Ethics The Rational Basis of Morality Concept of the Good Will Notion of Duty Maxims and Moral Behavior The Categorical Imperative Autonomy versus Heteronomy of the Will ORIGINAL SOURCE: Immanuel Kant, On Pure Moral Philosophy The Impermissibility of Lying: Maria von Herbert’s Correspondence with Kant 5.5 Carol Gilligan’s and Nel Noddings’s Care Ethics—Two Critiques of Male Moral Bias Gilligan on Male Bias in Moral Research Gilligan’s Ethic of Care Nel Noddings and Care Ethics ORIGINAL SOURCE: Nel Noddings, Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education 5.6 Friedrich Nietzsche’s Will to Power God Is Dead Will to Power ORIGINAL SOURCE: Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Gay Science Master versus Slave Morality Traditional (Herd) Morality and the Revaluation of All Values Evaluating Values The Superman/Übermensch 5.7 Religion and Ethics: Islamic, Hindu, and Christian Perspectives Islamic Ethics ORIGINAL SOURCE: Riffat Hassan, “Islamic View of Peace” Hindu Ethics ORIGINAL SOURCE: Ashok Kumar Malhotra, Transcreation of the Bhagavad Gita Christian Ethics ORIGINAL SOURCE: Brian Berry, Roman Catholic Ethics: Three Approaches Progress Check Study Guide CHAPTER 6: Political Philosophy Take It Personally Know Thyself: My Political Outlook 6.1 Political Philosophy versus Politics and Political Science 6.2 Plato’s Republic The Individual and the State Plato’s Class System Imperfect Societies Women, Marriage, and Family in the Republic ORIGINAL SOURCE: Plato, The Nature of Woman 6.3 Thomas Hobbes’s and John Locke’s Social Contract Theories Thomas Hobbes ORIGINAL SOURCE: Thomas Hobbes, “Of the Causes, Generation, and Definition of a Commonwealth” John Locke ORIGINAL SOURCE: John Locke, “Of the Ends of Political Society and Government” 6.4 Karl Marx’s Socialism Marx’s Metaphysics and Dialectical Materialism Class Conflict Alienation as a Byproduct of Capitalism Idolatry/Fetishism of Commodities Division of Labor After Capitalism ORIGINAL SOURCE: Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts 6.5 Martin Luther King Jr.’s Philosophy of Nonviolence 492 Influences on King Logic of Nonviolence ORIGINAL SOURCE: Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” Speech ORIGINAL SOURCE: Martin Luther King Jr., Where Do We Go from Here? Progress Check Study Guide Answers to Progress Checks A Note on Citations Endnotes Sources Image Sources Index

About the Author :
Anthony Falikowski taught philosophy for over 30 years at Sheridan College and is the author of several books, including Moral Philosophy for Modern Life and Let’s Be Reasonable: A Basic Guide to Rational Thinking. Susan Mills is Associate Professor of Philosophy at MacEwan University and has published on early modern philosophy.

Review :
“Experiencing Philosophy is a long-awaited comprehensive introduction to philosophy that brings the diversity of the philosophical landscape to the fore by introducing students to some widely overlooked but highly significant excerpts from non-Western philosophical traditions. Anthony Falikowski and Susan Mills present a clear, accessible, and argumentative narrative of key philosophical concepts in their introductions to the original sources. Most importantly, they make philosophy applied and relevant to human life. This book undeniably marks a new prospect for teaching and learning philosophy.” — Seyed N. Mousavian, Loyola University Chicago “In a spirit similar to Nietzsche’s ‘Back to the Earth’ and Wittgenstein’s ‘Back to the Rough Ground,’ Experiencing Philosophy does a beautiful job of bringing the practical and therapeutic values of philosophy back to students’ everyday lives. Its friendly, engaging, and sometimes personal tone will no doubt attract beginning students into a fascinating journey of philosophizing as living and living as philosophizing.” — Puqun Li, author of A Guide to Asian Philosophy Classics “This is an exceptional introductory textbook. Student-friendly and graphically attractive, the book has many useful pedagogical elements that will benefit readers. It covers a wide range of classic and contemporary issues, thus offering instructors considerable flexibility in their syllabus development and course presentations. Highly recommended.” — Mazen Guirguis, Kwantlen Polytechnic University “Covering classical excerpts from both historical and contemporary perspectives, Experiencing Philosophy does an excellent job of introducing the different branches of philosophy. This book is a one-stop shop for both students and instructors.” — Ataollah Hashemi, Saint Louis University “Experiencing Philosophy is one of the best undergraduate textbooks of philosophy I’ve seen, both in content and in presentation. Its usefulness spans at least the first two years of study in philosophy, reducing the cost to students who are often obligated to invest in several texts. I was pleased to see that, as well as standard foundational philosophy, this text offers the latest in philosophical developments such as philosophy as therapy.” — Peter B. Raabe, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of the Fraser Valley in British Columbia, and Philosophical Counselor